


Pixel Horror

by Bookworm39



Category: Gravity Falls, Mad Father, Strange Men (Video Games)
Genre: Gaming, Gen, In which the author is writing gravity falls to deal with it ending, International Fanworks Day 2016, Post-Weirdmageddon, Sibling Bonding, aka NOTHING TOO TERRIBLY SCARING BETTER HAPPEN TONIGHT, in which the Pines Twins try RP G horror games, the other two fandom are mainly there so you know what you're getting into
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5966824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookworm39/pseuds/Bookworm39
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rainy days were traditionally meant for spooks. Scary stories, exploring that one room that always seemed haunted. You know, that kind of thing.</p><p>Only one problem: At this point, the Pines Twins had burned out all their options. So before their parents left for the night, they'd given to two permissions to get one game each.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pixel Horror

**Author's Note:**

> I'M ALWAYS A SUCKER FOR RPG MAKER HORROR GAMES  
> Alright, as fate would have it, International Fanworks Day lines up with the series finale of Gravity Falls. I had to do something with that.  
> This one-shot assumes the Pine Twins are alive, well, and not mentally scared by Weirdmageddon. This tales place ~three years later, so around the spring/summer of 2015.  
> (Also, I forgot to mention, but if anyone wants to play the games mentioned in this [which I HIGHLY recommend,] without spoiling, Dipper's game is made by a creator by the name of Uri, and Mabel's is by Sen. The names of the games are in the story, and if you Google search 'VGPerson,' you should find the person that translates most of the RPG Maker horror games I've seen. Otherwise, Let's Plays are everywhere.)

The rain was poaring down outside as the two teens booted up their devices- One had a laptop, and the other, a desktop on a low desk. They settled down in their matching beanbag chairs (one purple and covered in glittery stars, the other a simple blue with a black and white stripe,) backs to each other. Anybody who saw them without knowing them first might've laughed, assuming they were texting their friends or something.

But those who knew the Pines Twins knew that they almost certainly had something planned.

Dipper pulled open the bag of chips sitting next to the two and grabbed a handful, passing the bag to his sister. "Alright, you ready of this, Mabel?"

"Ready as I'll after be!" She cracked her knuckles, then searched her desktop for the icon she needed. She double-clicked, pulling up the window.

Dipper followed suit, and turned to Mabel while the computers loaded. "So, did you get any scary content warnings on yours?"

"Nah, just a little gore warning." She waved her hand in a 'no big deal' gesture, then giggled as Dipper furrowed his eyebrows. "Don't worry, it's just that a few of the enemies are zombies of sorts."

"Pff, like we haven't dealt with zombies before," Dipper said, chuckling. "I'm just asking because I got some minor ones- jumpscares, swearing, body horror..."

"Yeesh, you chose a nasty one, huh?" Mabel ate another handful of chips. "What's it called, anyway?"

"It's called-oh, here, it's loaded!"

The two looked at Dipper's laptop, then shivered in unison. The title screen displayed a strange white figure with a neck bent so far it almost hurt to look at. The title at the top read 'The Crooked Man.'

Mabel giggled, while her brother rubbed his neck. "Well, looks like's you're in for it now, Dippingsauce."

"Yeah..." Dipper sighed. "Well, can't be too bad, right?" He looked over at Mabel's computer, which show a much more pheasant image- The silhouette of a little girl with a large bow (or maybe a freakishly-huge butterfly?) on her head, her hair blowing in the wind. The title said 'Mad Father.' "Hey, you cheated!"

"What? I did not!"

"Yes, you did. There's no way _that's_ a horror game."

"Well, we're just have to wait and see, now won't we?"

The two turned back to their respective games, Dipper putting on his headphones while Mabel put one earbud in, and hit 'Start.'

_'This game contains sudden surprises and harsh images. The weak of heart and those poor with horror should not play this game.'_

_Well, that sounds promising._ Dipper gulped, then settled down. Ah, well, it can't be worse then what he's seen so far, right?

"Oh, this music's really pretty!" Mabel unplugged her earphones, and after Dipper slipped off his headphones, he could hear an eerie music box song playing from the speakers.

"Yeah, kinda creepy, though." Dipper turned back to his laptop, and saw word on the screen. "Hey, looks like there's some sort of poem." He recited it under his breath:

_"There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse; and they all lived together in a little crooked house."_

A sweet little music box played as he read it. The song was much too pleasant for a horror game, in his opinion.

_Well, nothing to do now but play, I guess..._

* * *

The two quickly found out that both games were much, _much_ more twisted than they seemed at first. The protagonist of Dipper's game, David, was living on his own after his mother was sent to the hospital with Alzheimer's- not to mention the fact that his new apartment seemed haunted.

Mabel's protagonist, Aya, on the other hand, had lost her mother to illness, and it turned out the title of the game came from Aya's father, Dr. Drevis, who was a mad scientist.

"I still don't know how this girl's so calm about her dad being a crazy scientist," Mabel said, wandering around the mansion. She'd gotten up to make some popcorn (to 'restock the spook snacks', in her words,) so she wasn't as far into her game as her brother. "I mean, both of our great uncles are prone to doing the occasional illegal thing, but this is crazy!" She added, "Snowball the bunny's pretty cute, though."

"Yeah, that is kinda weird." Dipper said, then muttered, "Y'know, David, the least you could do is clean up the ghost footprints on your floor."

"What? Ghost footprints?"

"Oh, sorry. But this guy has these weird footprints in his apartment, which I'm pretty sure is haunted, and he's not bothering to clean them up?" He paused, guiding the character around a bit more. "See?! He's just going the bed! What kind of guy is this?"

Mabel jumped, then said, "Well, sounds like crazy-dad's in trouble. Guess I should go look?"

"For the sake of plot progression, if nothing else," Dipper said. "Doubt you can keep going if you don't. Now," he added, turning back to his game, "if you'll excuse me, I apparently have to go hunt down this creepy radio noise."

"That sounds like fu-Whoa!"

"What? What is it?!" Dipper turned back to his sister, nearly getting whiplash in the process.

"I found the zombies! I found the zombies!"

Sure enough, in front of the little sprite that Mabel was controlling, there were two twisted, rotten figures.

Mabel laughed nervously. "Hi, guys! I was wondering when you'd show up." She paused, reading a line of text on the screen. "'This way,' you say? Heh, that rhymes." She kept reading, adopting a higher-pitched voice. "'Who's that!?'"

"Well, it's probably not a zombie, so I'd follow them if I were you."

"Good plan."

Mabel hurried in the direction of the voice, blabbering at the zombies as she went. "Sorry, guys, can't stay, gotta go, see ya later, bye!" She reached a hallway, seeing a figure down the hall, and waved at the computer as she read the dialogue to herself. "Hi! I'm guessing you're not a zombie, so that's coo-OH MY GOSH YOU'RE MISSING AN EYEBALL!"

Sure enough, the portrait of the character had turned to reveal he had only an empty socket where his eye was.

"Whoa, okay, that's freaky." Dipper let out a little 'aha!' as he found the radio, trying not to laugh as his sister screamed "STRANGER DANGER! Weird guy in a nice hat!" Dipper mumbled under his breath, "Now, why is there a radio in your closet, David?" He paused, reading the text box on screen.

"'...Hm? There's something on this paper here... It's.. an address?' An address to where? 'Our special place'..." He looked up, taking a moment to process what he'd read. "Yeah, that's not ominous at all..." He sighed, grabbing a handful of popcorn. "Alright, guess it's time to go back to-AHHH!"

"Wah!" Mabel screamed in response, startled. "What's wrong?"

A loud, booming scare chord played, and there was bloody (though pixelated) writing on the screen.

_'I'm Waitin' for You'_

* * *

After a while longer, the twins realized how late it was getting and decided it was time to hit the hay.

"Man, that monster's freaky!" Dipper said, settling down in bed.

"At least you're not dealing with a bunch of zombies." Mabel patted the bed, and Waddles jumped onto the bed, wandering around in a circle like a dog. Mabel reaching over, turning out the light.

"Yeah. at least they're not real." Dipper paused, looking around nervously. "...Right?"

"Of course they're not! I mean, it's not like we've ever seen zombies befo-." Mabel stopped short, realizing what she was saying. "Oh. Well, it's not like that Crooked Man guy's real, right?"

"Right..." Dipper rolled over, trying not to think about. Then, before he could think about it, he added, "And we've never seen video game characters become real before, right?"

Mabel turned the light back on. "Tomorrow's Saturday. We can stay up a little longer."


End file.
